


Left to Our Own Devices

by chrissie0707



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Tag, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 19:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8413957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissie0707/pseuds/chrissie0707
Summary: Short Tag for 12.03 "The Foundry." When he wakes, the hallway smells like a dive bar, like cigarettes and whiskey and bad decisions, and that's how he knows Dean is back.





	

When he wakes, the hallway smells like a dive bar, like cigarettes and whiskey and bad decisions, and that's how he knows Dean is back.

He comes across his brother hunched over the sink in his room, cleaning blood from split knuckles. A fist-sized maroon splotch colors Dean's jaw beneath too many days' worth of stubble, and there are crimson drops on his shirtfront.

And still, Sam is unsure which of them is handling this worse.

He leans in the doorway, aiming for _casual_ but knowing it's more like _desperate._ "You go out for a drink and find a fight, or was it the other way around?"

Dean shuts off the tap, shakes water from his bruised hands. "Does it matter?" His voice is tight with more than one kind of pain, and Sam doesn't know what to do about any of it.

Not about any of it.

"Not really," he answers honestly, and fully enters the room, considering the door left open an invitation. Sam sits on his brother's bed and drops his hands between his knees. "Does it help?"

Dean takes his time in looking up but he does, bloodshot eyes meeting Sam's in the mirror. "Not really."


End file.
